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Fnatic Weekly - LoL Extend Group A Lead

--By Matthew

Thursday’s clash with G2 could prove to be a watershed moment. For the last year, the Fnatic LoL team have been so close to taking down Perkz and co, always chipping away a game but never being able to cross the finish line.

So what’s changed?

Well for one the team has had time to settle. At the end of Spring Split we’d found our rhythm and developed a style that fit our player’s strengths, favouring comfort and pocket picks over the meta-standard that’s been keeping our opponents on their toes. Each win we’ve taken has added a little more momentum and a little more confidence to the roster.

Team’s have of course got wise to the Rekkles Kennen - not that it’s helped them. Picks and bans in game 1 showed exactly that. G2 removed three powerpicks: Xayah, Elise and a Jesiz favoured Thresh and pushed into a corner chose to take Zac first rather than denying the Swede’s favoured ninja. On top of that, sOAZ was given his own comfort in Shen and it immediately paid off! Both player’s combined early on to pick up first blood on Trick with a rapid turn to pick off Expect for a top lane lead.

Photo credit: Riot Games

The ult combo continued to work throughout finding single picks and fighting off engages, the global from Shen giving constant protection.

The boys charged to a 10k gold lead, bringing in a win at 33 minutes after lightning quick play.

Game 2 gave cause for concern though. We’d been in this position before; 1-0 up with the momentum our way only for G2 to find their feet and reverse the series. As we feared, they rallied to tie the series, even in spite of a very close match - Caps destroying Perkz once again in the midlane.

The deciding match would tell how far we’d come. We’d learned how strong Twitch was so the sewer rat was removed in the first ban phase and yet still, Kennen and Shen were allowed through! Rekkles laid waste to botlane with the constant global presence enough to ensure his survival, the reversal coming out from sOAZ repeatedly.

Meanwhile in mid, Caps was confident enough on Cassiopeia to 1v3! Too tanky to be burnt down, his sidesteps bought so much time allowing Jesiz and Broxah to storm in and clean up. An incredible snowball, G2 were put to the sword at a 13k gold deficit with the team stealing a charge on Group A.

You can check out the series highlights below:

In Other Games

We’ve got so much going on this week. Our Heroes of the Storm team have been hammering away in the Group Stage of the Midseason Brawl, aiming for a place at this weekend’s Dreamhack Summer on home turf! You can check out our preview for MSB, here.

Joining them in Jönköping is our CS:GO roster - they’ll be in action for the Dreamhack Open so make sure you keep an eye out for our preview on that.

Finally, our CoD team will be fighting in the CWL relegation tournament. They’ll be doing their very best in Anaheim to make it through to Season 2, with teams such as Cloud9 in their way. We’ll be cheering them on all the way!